Monday, 12 May 2014

(.......part 2)

APEX training in NZ?

If you are amongst lucky ones like me (read not really) with your options even more limiting due to a technology you work in, you are doomed for good.

APEX
training in NZ almost does not exist (exempting here few rare
general intro courses that hardly helped anyone) where we as developers
could take part on yearly basis to share experiences gained and how is our future as APEX
developers looking like.

It
would be interesting to see how many of us are there on the market. From experience working for one of the largest ICT consulting
companies in AU/NZ region that there are very few opening positions and
when they even do appear they happen to be on the other side of Tasman.
How ironic?

Yes we are a small market but common places in Europe with even lesser population then NZ, with even poorer technology standard manage to be in front when it comes to number of opportunities.

The only
decent chance to get familiar and meet your APEX mates comes down to
NZOUG which takes place every second year so if you get a chance do not
skip this year's one happening in November. So don't miss out? Yeah you
bet - mostly reserved for DBA's :).

Future?

Now that all these frustrating and negative thoughts are out what a person can do to make himself feel better. :)

How can we succeed in environment like this?

Ideally a conference or NZ APEX community group would do us really well. We all also needto
raise an awareness among clients that APEX is all around and that they
should be happy to use it. Being afraid and in the dark never got
anyone anywhere so......

The most important thing is to be persistent and boring, don't let go. Keep asking questions
so that your managers are aware that someone here is alive and
kicking.

People
selling it need to be aware of its capabilities. There is nothing worse than having a
sales person who never heard about Oracle Application Express. Well
that can happen too experienced it first hand.

Agencies and consulting companies should start investing and stand behind the technology that is more and more widely spread. Same
as with any other technology it will reach a moment when a boom will
happen. They should offer us more training, as knowledge database grows
more opportunities will come.

What
can I do as individual? Probably in next few years I might start
implementing some of these on my own. Away from security of corporate
world to see what will happen.

If you happen to get to this post I would be more than
happy for you to leave a comment. Whether or not you want to get in contact is less
important but it will be a step toward something new, leading
to something maybe even bigger at least we will be aware. Small steps at
the beginning is what matter the most so please do not hesitate.

I
would love to hear from you, what are your thoughts here and even if
your are not working in NZ, please do join the conversation.

If it doesn't reach anyone at least I had an interesting afternoon at work. :D